Troubling signs for Miami Dolphins head coach Adam Gase
Yes, it’s early on in Adam Gase’s head coaching career but there are some things happening which should raise a red flag and could perhaps cause him to lose the Miami Dolphins locker room. Don’t get me wrong, Gase is a definite upgrade over the past few head coaches we’ve seen trudge through this organization but he’s doing things that have me concerned more than just a bit as a fan of this franchise.
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Why not let center Mike Pouncey play? Gase is saying that he wants to see the center get in a good week of practice before putting him in a game situation. That’s understandable, but he won’t let him practice. All we see is Mike doing drills and exercises on the sidelines and he certainly appears to be moving well. Just not well enough for the coach.
Pouncey is an athlete. If he thinks his body can go, then let him go. He has said that he wants to play, that he’s ready to play. Apparently there was an exchange between them at practice last week when Gase kind of pandered to him and left him to work out on the sidelines. With the team on a short week and staring down the barrel of going with the third option at center against the Cincinnati Bengals, what does Adam Gase have to lose?
The week one incident involving Jay Ajayi that saw him be left home for the Seattle trip smacks of a coach desperate to put his stamp on the team early. I’m sorry coach but I think you have to pick and choose your battles. Leaving the number one running back home for the opening game will do nothing to motivate Ajay. He was finally getting his shot to be the featured back on opening day and you took that from him. You don’t think that’s going to stick in Ajayi’s mind? Think again…
Constant juggling of players and searching for the best option at every position has also been going on well past it’s sell by date. Isn’t that what training camp is for? Why the constant threats of benchings. Today’s athlete is different from the players in the days of Shula. It’s a different world.
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These guys are making big money and the threats don’t really affect their paycheck, which sadly, is what most of today’s athletes are about. I believe that by threatening to not play them you only “lose” them a little bit. We all know what happened to this team when the last coach “lost the locker room.”
Finally, Gase somehow manages to keep Joe Philbin’s tradition of defending quarterback Ryan Tannehill alive and well in South Florida. How can he not acknowledge the flaws we saw in the Browns game? Tannehill still has zero pocket awareness and manages to hold on to the ball far longer than he should. Yet Gase refused to single him out or, at the very least, point out where Ryan needs to improve.
Yesterday, Gase claimed that Tannehill “got the offense out of a few bad plays” on Sunday. Really? I’ve watched the game twice and I didn’t see him make anything happen. When everything goes well, he gets the job done. When a play/protection breaks down, he does very little to make a positive play.
Ryan Tannehill is quite the conundrum, he makes passes like he did to DeVante Parker that raise your hopes and then minutes later he takes a bad sack, fumbles, or throws a terrible pick. I refuse to believe that in year five he’s still a “work in progress.” I believe that this is what you get with Ryan Tannehill. It’s not going to get any better. Maybe Gase figures he’s got to stick this out for one year and then he can bring in his own quarterback. I hope that’s it, but I’m not holding out much hope.
After what the fans have endured since the 2008, don’t we as Miami Dolphins’ fans deserve at least a little hope?
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